Bachelor of Science in Physical Education/Athletic Training University of Iowa

AboutDr. Anthony Breitbach serves as the Director of the Athletic Training (AT) Program in the Doisy College of Health Sciences at Saint Louis University. He had previously served as the Director of Sports Medicine for the Saint Louis University Athletic Department for 7 years and has a total of 29 years of experience as a Certified Athletic Trainer.

He has previously served has the President of the Iowa Athletic Trainers Society and on the Board of Directors for the Mid-America Athletic Trainers Association. In 2011, he was awarded the Dr. Glenn L. McElroy Distinguished Service Award by the Missouri Athletic Trainers Association.

He served on the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) Executive Committee for Education (ECE), where he played an active role in the development of the "Future Directions of Athletic Training Education" recommendations which were approved by the NATA Board of Directors in 2012.

Dr. Breitbach is actively participating in research regarding interprofessional education, interprofessional practice and its relationship to AT. He serves as a coordinator for the "Interprofessional Education and Practice in Athletic Training" white paper which was completed in the spring of 2014.

Professional AssociationsNational Athletic Trainers' Association

Research Focus:

Dr. Blessing is a qualitative researcher interested in creating, developing and evaluating various aspects of innovative teaching strategies and models. She oversees all qualitative research studies conducted by undergraduate senior Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) and Investigative and Medical Sciences (IMS) students. She is also the program director of the new, innovative, research-intensive Doisy College Master of Science in Health Sciences (MSHS) degree program and in that role will mentor Master's students who have a similar research interest.

Current Research Project

Development and assessment of student-created content review modules in Laboratory Medicine written in the form of stories

Laboratory Medicine Content Review Module DescriptionEach story is written in chapters that detail an interesting case study encountered by Laboratory Detective Driver. Interwoven into each story are pertinent patient history and symptoms and laboratory tests ordered with results when appropriate. Detective Driver's mission is to "solve the case." Questions for consideration by the reader are strategically incorporated into the stories for self-assessment. The ultimate goal is to assemble a group of such stories and combine them into an online and/or physical book.

Study Design: Qualitative Research

Example Research Questions

What skills do students develop and sharpen by completing the Laboratory Medicine Content Review Modules?

To what extent does completion of Laboratory Content Review Modules have on student performance on the department final comprehensive and the post-graduation certification exams?

What do students see as the advantages and disadvantages of completing one or more Laboratory Content Review Modules.

Example Data Collection Strategies

Observations of students discussing the content, usability, etc.. of the Laboratory Medicine Content Review Modules

Individual interviews

Focus-group interviews

Document analysis

Current Status of the Project

Five stories have been created

The effectiveness of one story has been studied and the major outcome was that students found the story to very helpful as they study for their department comprehensive exam and for the post-graduation certification exam

Currently in discussions with a well-known publisher about the possibility of converting these stories into online modules that can be used for students and practitioners

The concept has been submitted for presentation at the Fall 2012 American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) meeting; notification of acceptance or not expected sometime in late summer

Objective:

To understand the current perspectives of cytotechnology educators.

To determine the learners' perception of the teaching and learning environment/climate in the cytotechnology classroom.

To assess the effect on the cytotechnology students' perspectives of classroom environment/climate and how it may correlate with the instructional perspectives of cytotechnology educators.